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The Abacus and the Numeral Frame

The Chinese Abacus

The counters used by European merchants moved along lines drawn on a surface. In the Chinese, Japanese, or Russian abacus, counters move along rods or wires held in a rectangular frame. Scholars disagree about how long such instruments have been made and about whether the Asian abacus was influenced by the counters of the Greeks. Both Chinese and Japanese abaci have a crossbar.Counters above the crossbar have a value of five, while those below represent one. In the Chinese abacus (suan-pan), there are two beads above the crossbar and five below.

"The Abacus and the Numeral Frame - The Chinese Abacus" showing 4 items.

This instrument sits in a rosewood box with rosewood cross piece. Fifteen parallel bamboo rods pass through the cross piece. Each rod has two wooden beads above and five below the cross piece. The beads are rounded, like those on other Chinese abaci. Brass corner pieces hold the box together.

Frank A.Taylor, a staff member in the Department of Arts and Industries at the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, first lent the abacus to the National Collections in 1928 for use in a display of calculating instruments. He lent the object as an example of a modern Chinese abacus. He donated it in 1960.There is no mark by a maker.

This instrument has an open wooden frame held together with brass nails passing through metal bands. A wooden cross bar holds 13 columns of beads. Each column has two beads above the crossbar and five beads below. The beads are rounded, as on other Chinese abaci. There are no marks by a maker.

This form of abacus was sold in combination with a book entitled Abacus Arithmetic by the Australian-born metallurgist, Stanford University graduate, and later Stanford professor of metallurgy Welton J. Crook (1886-1976). Crook became fascinated with the abacus on a visit to Hong Kong, and resolved to publish a clear exposition on the instrument in English. His short book was published in 1958 by Pacific Books in Palo Alto, California, and sold tens of thousands of copies. For a copy of this paperback, see 1989.0709.03. The abacus and the related book were given to the Smithsonian by Washington, D. C., clockmaker Elton L. Howe in 1989.

This abacus fits in a black wooden box with a wooden cross piece. Eleven parallel bamboo rods carry seven beads each. Two beads are above the cross piece, five below. The beads are rounded, like those on Chinese abaci. One rod is broken and another cracked. The abacus was received as a gift from the Department of Mathematics of Brown University in 1973. There are no marks by a maker.

This double abacus has a wooden frame with 25 columns of wooden beads which slide on bamboo rods. It apparently was designed for use by two people at once. Each rod has 14 beads. A relatively thick wooden cross piece down the center divides the beads into groups of seven. Two thinner cross pieces divide the groups of seven into groups of two and five.

Metal brackets hold the instrument together at the corner, with two wooden supports at the back. Holes drilled at one end hold loops of green plastic twine that are held together with a small metal ring and allow the instrument to be mounted on a wall.

The three characters carved on the center of the cross piece represent general words such as “happiness” or “wisdom.” The loops and the orientation of the characters suggest that the instrument was sold as much as a wall ornament as a practical device.

The donor received the abacus as a gift from Simon Newman, Deputy Director of Research and Development of the U.S. Patent Office. Mr. Newman died in 1985. He had traveled in Hong Kong.